I followed this for years on sci.fusion back before www bacame popular. I remember when Mallove was murdered. I remember when sono fusion was going to do it when everybody gave up on metal lattice loading. I even know who Archimedes Plutonium is.
Man those were the days. Usenet rules baby.
This story is too much like the ones I heard 20 years ago. Some scientist had a fully functional machine making excess heat for months and commercial production was always just around the corner.
It is easy to fall for this stuff with the things scientists are trying to pass off as real science. It is easy to get confused.